Apparatus for directing a fluid upon a moving strip



' Sept. ,15, 1970 R, A. SCHULTZ 3,528,493

APPARATUS FOR DIREC'IING A FLUID UPON A MOVING STRIP Filed Nov. 18, 1968 Reservoir ,Jt m w Q [N I/EN TOR. I ROBER T A. SCHUL T2 m y MGM United States Patent 3,528,493 APPARATUS FOR DIRECTING A FLUID UPON A MOVING STRIP Robert A. Schultz, Penn Hills Township, Allegheny County, Pa., assiguor to United States Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 776,720 Int. Cl. F28d 11/00 US. Cl. 165-86 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for directing fluid upon a moving strip. A cylindrical roll has circumferential grooves in its longitudinal surface. The strip is wrapped around part of the roll and covers portions of the grooves. While the strip moves in rolling engagement with the roll, stationary shoes feed fluid through the grooves underneath the strip. The apparatus is useful for any situation where a moving strip is to be brought into contact with a fluid for heating, cooling, chemical treatment, or other reasons. Also, the invention is useful for increasing or decreasing the pressure with which a moving strip is held to a roll.

This invention relates to an apparatus for directing fluid upon a moving strip. The invention has particular advantages when used in cooling a steel strip, such as a continuous annealing furnace or a vapor deposition line.

In the cooling of strip, conventional practice has been to pass the strip over a roll and feed the coolant into the center of the roll. The strip is cooled by heat transfer from the strip through the roll material to the coolant inside the roll. Such a heat transfer process is obviously less etficient than feeding the coolant into direct contact with the strip. However, it is diflicult to pass fluid over a moving strip without allowing leakage of fluid to the surrounding atmosphere. In many processes Where strip is to be cooled, substantial coolant leakage cannot be tolerated as it would seriously contaminate a controlled atmosphere to which the strip is also being subjected.

Thus, an object of my invention is to provide apparatus for treating a moving strip that includes means for applying fluid directly to the strip, as well as means for confining the fluid so that it does not escape to the surrounding atmosphere.

Still another object of my invention is to provide an apparatus for directing a gas upon a moving strip that involves rolling the strip over a roll and enables an operator to control the force with which the strip is held to the roll by adjusting the pressure in a gas line.

These and other objects will be more apparent from the following detailed description of my invention and the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an end elevation of apparatus for directing fluid upon a moving strip;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the apparatus of FIG. 1, taken alone line II-II of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1, taken along line III-III of FIG. 1.

In the drawings, apparatus 2 is designed to direct fluid upon a strip S. The type of fluid employed may be one for heating or cooling the strip S or for treating the strip in some other way. Typical fluids are air, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and water. In the embodiment to be discussed, a hydrogen gas coolant will be used as an example.

3,528,493 Patented Sept. 15,, 1970 The apparatus 2 includes a cylindrical roll 4 that has a shaft 5 journaled at each end in a bearing 6, supported on a platform 10. If desired, a motor, not shown, may be connected to shaft 5 to provide a direct drive for the roll 4.

The strip S passes over the roll 4 and is in rolling engagement with the roll. In the present embodiment, the strip S has an arc of contact of about with the roll 4. In other embodiments, this are of contact may be increased or decreased as desired. t

The roll 4 has a longitudinal surface 12 with circumferential grooves 14. The hydrogen coolant flows through the grooves 14. When the strip S engages the surface 12 of roll 14, it bridges the grooves 14 to form closed fluid passageways. Thus, the, coolant in the passageways is in direct contact with the strip S, and is able to convey heat away from the strip very efliciently.

The number and width of grooves 14 should be sufficient to provide a maximum area of contact between the coolant and the strip S, while still leaving enough longitudinal surface 12 to give adequate support to the strip S. The area of the strip contacted by the coolant may be increased by providing crosswise grooves 15. With these grooves, the coolant flows between the grooves 14 and there is a more even coverage of coolant upon the strip S. Furthermore, the portion of the roll 4 adjacent the surface 12 may be made of a porous material, which allows the coolant to seep through the pores to the juxtaposed contacting surfaces of strip S and the roll 4.

Outlet shoes 20 and inlet shoes 21 are provided for directing the coolant into and out of the portions of grooves 14 underneath strip S. The shoes 20 and 21 are mounted on support beams 22 and 23, and they extend from these beams into the portions of grooves 14 underneath the strip S. The support beams 22 and 23 are part of the same support structure as platform 10.

Holes 25 extend lengthwise through the fluid outlet shoes 20. The holes 25 convey fluid between the grooves 14 and outlet valves 26 at the lower ends of the shoes. As shown in FIG. 2, the valves 26 are connected to a common outlet header 28. Similarly, inlet shoes 21 on the left-hand side of the roll 4 (FIG. 1) have holes 30 which communicate between the passageways 14 and inlet valves 31. Inlet valves 31 are in turn connected to an inlet header 32. Line 33 connects inlet header 32 to a fluid reservoir 34.

A pump 35 is connected by line 36 to outlet header 28. The pump 35 draws fluid from the reservoir 34 through inlet shoes 21, grooves 14 of roll 4, and outlet Shoes 20. If the fluid in the reservoir 34 is maintained at atmospheric pressure, the pressure of the fluid in grooves 14 will be less than atmospheric and fluid leakage at the grooves 1 4 will be atmosphere leaking into the grooves rather than the coolant escaping to the atmosphere. After passing-through the pump 35, the fluid is cooled by a heat exchanger 38 before being dumped back into reservoir 34. Of course, other fluid piping arrangementsthan that shown in FIG. 1 may be employed to take fluid from the outlet header 28 and recirculate it to the inlet header 21.

Preferably, the system should be designed so that the pressure of the coolant in the grooves 14 underneath strip S can be maintained at less than the pressure of the atmosphere outside the roll 4. The negative pressure in grooves 14 not only prevents coolant from contaminating the atmosphere, but also increases the force with which the strip S is held to roll 4.

As shown in FIG. 3, each shoe 20 and 21 has wear plates 44, preferably made of a wear-resistant alloy steel. The wear plates 44 slidably engage the side walls 45 of groove 14. Pairs of compression springs 46, housed within shoe 20 on either side of hole 25, insure that the wear plates 44 ride in contact with the groove side walls 45. Preferably, two or three pairs of these springs 46 are placed along the length of each wear plate 44. In addition to reducing wear on the shoes 20 and 21, the wear plates 44 serve to reduce leakage of atmosphere into the grooves 14 in the vicinity of shoes 20 and 21.

In operation, a section of strip S is placed over the longitudinal surface 12 of roll 4, as shown in FIG. 1. The strip S bridges the portions of the grooves 14 between the top ends of shoes 20 and 21, thus forming closed passageways between the shoes. Then, the pump 35 is started and coolant flows through the inlet shoes 20, grooves 14, and outlet shoes 21 in the direction of arrow f (FIG. 1). Heat exchanger 38 cools the fluid before it is dumped back into reservoir 34. The strip S is moved either by driving roll 4 in the direction of arrow r (FIG. 1), or by driving the strip S in some other way. The speed of the fluid through grooves 14 may be varied independently of the speed of strip S or roll 4, by varying the speed of pump 35.

Preferably, the pressure in the grooves 14 is maintained at less than the pressure of the atmosphere outside the roll 4, so that any leakage around the strip S will be into the grooves 14, rather than having hydrogen coolant contaminate the atmosphere. However, if an air coolant is used in place of hydrogen, or contaminating the atmos phere is not a problem, pressure in reservoir 34 may be raised to increase the pressure in grooves 14 to above atmospheric pressure, even to the extent of causing the strip S to slip on roll 4, if such slipping is desired.

If the strip S is not wide enough to bridge all of the grooves 14, then the gas flow into the uncovered grooves may be turned off by shutting off the appropriate inlet valves 31. Also, the appropriate outlet valves 26 should be turned off to prevent atmospheric air from being drawn into the system.

In summary, the foregoing apparatus and method have many uses and advantages. The invention can be used in any situation where it is desired to bring a fluid into direct contact with a moving strip. The fluid may be used to heat or cool the strip or to treat the strip in some other manner. The invention has the advantage of confining the fluid at all times so that little or no fluid escapes to the surrounding atmosphere. Furthermore, the invention can be used to control the force with which a moving strip is held to a roll. This is done by introducing gas through the grooves 14, and adjusting the pressure of the gas underneath the strip S.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for directing a fluid upon a moving strip, said apparatus comprising a stationary support,

a cylindrical roll journaled on said stationary support,

said cylindrical roll having a circumferential groove in its longitudinal surface,

said cylindrical roll having a portion of its grooved longitudinal surface in rolling engagement with said strip, said strip bridging said groove to form a passageway for said fluid,

an inlet and an outlet shoe each mounted on said stationary support, said shoes extending into opposite ends of said passageway underneath said strip and having holes in communication with said passagea fluid pump connected on its low pressure side to the hole in said outlet shoe,

a fluid reservoir connected to said pump for receiving fluid from said pump that has been drawn through said passageway, and

means connecting the hole in said inlet shoe with said fluid reservoir.

2. Apparatus for directing a fluid upon a moving strip,

said apparatus comprising:

a stationary support,

a cylindrical roll journaled on said stationary support, said cylindrical roll having circumferential grooves in its longitudinal surface,

said cylindrical roll having a portion of its grooved longitudinal surface in rolling engagement with said strip, said strip bridging said groove to form a passageway for said fluid,

means mounted on said stationary support for directing fluid through said passageway,

said means for directing fluid including a shoe mounted on said stationary support, said shoe extending into one end of said passageway and having a hole in communication with said passageway,

a fluid supply means connected to said shoe and communicating with said hole in the shoe,

a second shoe mounted on said stationary support, said second shoe extending into the end of said passageway opposite from the first-mentioned shoe and having a second hole in communication with said groove,

means for drawing fluid connected to said second shoe,

and communicating with said second hole,

wear plates facing the side walls of said longitudinal grooves in the roll, and

spring means connecting said wear plates to said shoes and forcing the wear plates into engagement with said side walls of the longitudinal grooves.

3. Apparatus for directing a fluid upon a moving strip,

said apparatus comprising a stationary support,

a cylindrical roll journaled on said stationary support, said cylindrical roll having a circumferential groove in its longitudinal surface,

said cylindrical roll having a portion of its grooved longitudinal surface in rolling engagement with said strip, said strip bridging said groove to form a passageway for said fluid,

means mounted on said stationary support for directing fluid through said passageway, said means for directing fluid including a shoe mounted on said stationary support, said shoe extending into one end of said passageway and having a hole in communication with said passageway,

a fluid supply means connected to said shoe and communicating with said hole in the shoe,

a second shoe mounted on said stationary support,

said second shoe extending into the end of said passageway opposite from the first-mentioned shoe and having a second hole in communication with said groove, and

means for drawing fluid connected to said second shoe,

and communicating with said second hole.

4. Apparatus for directing a fluid upon a moving strip, said apparatus comprising:

a stationary support,

a cylindrical roll journaled on said stationary support,

said cylindrical roll having a plurality of circumferential grooves in its longitudinal surface, said strip bridging said grooves to form passageways for said fluid,

means on said stationary support for directing fluid through said passageway, said means for directing said fluid including a plurality of shoes mounted on said stationary support, each shoe extending into one end of one of said passageways having a hole in communication with said passageway,

a fluid supply means connected to each of said shoes and communicating with said holes in said shoes, and

said cylindrical roll having crosswise grooves in said 6 longitudinal surface connecting said circumferential 3,429,363 2/1969 Hazelett et a1. 164-87 grooves and permitting said fluid to pass between 3,446,273 5/1969 Thome 165-120 said circumferential grooves and increase the area i of contact of said fluid with said moving strip. ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner References Cited 5 C. SUKALO, Assistant Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS US. Cl. X.R.

2,893,703 7/1959 Richardson 165-180 3,419,068 12/1968 Grierson "165-89 

